George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 

COLONEL  FLOWERS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/valleyofdecisionOObell 


THE  VALLEY  OE  DECISION: 


A PLEA  FOR  UNBROKEN  FEALTY  ON  THE  PART  OF  THE  LOYAL 
STATES  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE  UNION,  DESPITE 
THE  OFFENCES  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 


A DISCOURSE, 


— GIVEN — 

ON  OCCASION  OF  THE  NATIONAL  FAST, 

Sept.  26,  1861, 

IN  ALL  SOULS’  CHURCH, 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS. 


NEW  YORK: 

H.  B.  PRICE,  PUBLISHER  AND  BOOKSELLER,  884  BROADWAY,  N.  Y. 

1861. 


r 


THE  FLOWERS  COLLECTION 

3 4-  4-  ? V 


DISCOURSE. 


“Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  valley  of  decision:  for  the  day  of  the  Lord  i3 
near  in  the  valley  of  decision.” — Joel  iii,  14. 

This  is  the  cry  which  is  now  sounding  through  our  plains 
and  mountains,  from  the  St.  Johns  to  the  Rio  Grande,  from 
the  Tortugas  to  Vancouver’s  Land?  Over  the  grave  of  our 
great  Washington,  his  children  are  bending  with  sword  and 
bayonet  pointed  at  each  other’s  breasts.  The  valley  of  his 
pride  and  affection,  that  fed  his  strength  and  solaced  his  weak- 
ness, that  caught  his  first  breath  and  his  last  sigh,  is  become 
the  valley  of  decision,  where  “ multitudes,  multitudes”  are 
seeking  by  outnumbering  each  other  to  prove  that  “ the  day 
of  the  Lord”  is  brightening  into  victory,  on  the  one  hand  for 
those  who  claim  a political  right  to  break  up  the  nation  it  was 
his  glory  to  found,  and  on  the  other  hand  for  those  who  assert 
it  to  be  the  most  urgent  and  solemn  of  all  duties  to  maintain 
with  their  blood,  and  at  any  sacrifice  of  the  blood  of  those  who 
deny  it,  the  perpetual  union  and  unbroken  nationality  of  these 
United  States. 

It  is  indeed  a solemn  controversy  for  us ! We  cannot  too 
earnestly  cry  “multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  valley  of  deci- 
sion.” We  need  them  there,  and  if  we  fail  to  send  them,  all 
our  fasting  and  prayer  will  not  hide  from  God  the  hypocrisy 
of  our  patriotism  ! Such  a valley  of  decision  as  that  to  which 
the  hosts  of  loyal  and  rebellious  States  are  now  hurrying,  was 
rarely  open  before.  So  great  a stake  never  hung  upon  so  cri- 
tical a line.  Were  that  valley  to  witness  a decision  against 
us,  who  can  speak  the  depth  of  our  humiliation,  or  estimate  the 
sura  of  our  misfortunes?  But  it  will  not!  “ The  day  of  the 


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Lord  is  near  in  the  valley  of  decision,”  and  it  will  prove  how 
vain  are  the  boasts,  how  deluded  the  hopes  of  those  who  Lave 
exhausted  the  strength  of  their  loins,  almost  before  we  have 
raised  the  little  finger  of  our  mi  ght. 

The  grounds  of  this  hopefulness  I proceed  now  to  state  at 
length.  T propose  in  the  present  discourse  to  examine  the 
workings  of  our  institutions  in  a time  of  war  ; to  look  at  the 
administration,  the  government  and  the  nation  in  their  several 
relations  to  this  contest ; to  discuss  incidentally  the  several 
policies,  which  the  unavoidable  moods  of  the  people  have  in- 
clined them  to  adopt;  and  while  explaining  the  past  experi- 
ences and  accounting  for  the  present  tendencies  of  thought 
and  feeling — to  urge  a policy  more  conservative  than  is  just 
now  popular,  upon  the  sober  reflection  of  the  nation. 

Here  is  a war  going  on  between— on  the  one  hand — twenty  free 
and  loyal  States,  occupied  by  over  twenty  millions  of  people, 
rich,  educated  ; more  moral  and  religious  than  any  equal  popu- 
lation in  the  world  (which  is  not  saying  much  by  a true  stand- 
ard) ; accustomed  to  labor,  and  possessing  vigor  and  patience  ; 
a people  loving  and  revering  their  institutions,  and  anxious  and 
willing  to  defend  them : and,  on  the  other  hand,  ten  or  eleven 
rebellious  States,  occupied  by  eight  millions  of  people,  with 
little  capital  and  less  education,  poor  schools,  an  inferior  mo- 
rality, and  a more  superstitious  piety  ; an  agricultural  people, 
cursed  with  negro  slavery,  a monotonous  industry,  and  a large 
class  of  idle  and  degraded  whites.  Without  any  fair  preten- 
sion to  equality  with  the  great  North  in  commerce,  or  even  in 
agriculture  (as  has  been  abundantly  proved),  not  half  equal  in 
population,  and  almost  beneath  comparison  in  any  of  the  arts 
or  sciences,  in  literature,  and  especially  in  the  great  art  of 
living;  this  dependent  body  of  States,  who  looked  to  us  for 
shoes,  hats,  cloths,  cutlery,  salt  and  hay  ; and  in  the  reality  of 
whose  purpose  to  go  to  war  with  us  nobody  six  months  ago  of 
a sensible  turn  of  mind  seriously  believed ; has  not  only  re- 
belled against  that  first  class  power  which  had  the  respect  and 
fear  of  the  world — the  United  States  government ; but  ac- 
tually maintained  its  rebellion  with  increasing  energy  and 
success ; has  beleagured  and  endangered  the  Capitol,  which 
at  the  moment  we  speak  is  threatened  by  its  army ; has  put 


5 


the  government  to  its  utmost  exertions  to  defend  the  dignity 
of  the  flag  ; has  routed  us  in  the  first  great  battle  ; has  broken 
our  blockade  and  overrun  our  domestic  sea  with  privateers  ; 
has  extorted  the  respect  of  foreign  governments,  and  is  not  un- 
likely, in  spite  of  all  we  can  do,  to  win  a pseudo-recognition 
from  England  and  France;  has  created  a peace  party  within 
our  own  loyal  States  ; compelled  us  to  the  demeaning  neces- 
sity of  proclaiming  martial  law  in  Baltimore  and  St.  Louis, 
and  disposed  our  indignant  and  alarmed  people  to  administer 
lynch-law  upon  various  disloyal  presses  within  our  own  hol- 
ders ! 

What  can  account  for  this  undesirable  state  of  things  ? Is 
it  because  the  South  has  a just  cause  of  rebellion  and  a right- 
ful claim  to  independence,  that  her  weakness  is  mightier  than 
our  strength  'l  ISTo!  she  herself  knows  and  confesses  that  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  world  is  against  her,  and  puts  her  trust 
not  in  her  right,  but  in  her  will  and  in  her  sword.  Even  those 
who  from  jealousy  of  our  undivided  power,  most  desire  her  in- 
dependence, have  not  the  impudence  to  whisper  any  justifi- 
cation of  her  course.  She  is  without  a respectable  defender 
in  the  open  court  of  the  world.  Her  best  friends  abroad  dare 
only  by  indirection  to  sustain  her  cause  or  justify  her  sedition. 
Even  their  hopes  and  expectations  cannot  so  far  warp  their 
judgment  as  to  put  the  Southern  revolt  upon  the  smallest  mo- 
ral footing.  The  civilized  world  knows  that  it  is  a conspiracy 
of  ambitious  politicians,  enraged  at  the  necessary  decline  of 
their  sectional  influence  in  the  republic ; and  taking  advan- 
tage ot  the  sensitiveness,  ignorance  and  animosity  of  the  slave 
power,  to  wrest  apart  a region  where  they  again  can  rule  !— 
How  then  is  the  formidableness  and  the  success  of  the  rebels 
to  be  accounted  for  ? 

Certainly  not  upon  any  grounds  which  will  be  ultimately 
favorable  to  their  cause,  or  which  will  redound  to  the  credit 
of  their  civilization.  It  is  indeed  the  badness  of  their  cause, 
and  their  own  inferiority  in  all  the  constituents  of  a true  civil- 
ization, which  have  made  them  potent  and  successful  thus  far. 
They  are  living  and  fighting  from  stolen  forts  and  with  stolen 
arms,  commanded  by  oath-breakers  and  men  who  were  plot- 
ting treason  while  trusted  in  the  most  confidential  posts  in  the 


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government.  They  owe  their  advantages  chiefly  to  the  ten- 
derness and  scrupulosity  of  the  federal  government,  which 
most  reluctantly  credited  the  wickedness  of  their  intentions, 
and  allow'ed  their  treason  to  flourish  in  the  very  face  and  eyes 
of  an  overpowering  strength,  in  hopes  it  would  repent,  and 
never  nse  against  such  forbearance  the  power  it  was  suffered  to 
acquire.  The  love  of  the  Union  which  pervades  the  loyal 
States  made  them  incredulous  of  any  persistent  assaults  upon 
it  from  the  slave  States.  They  reckoned  alike  on  their  discre- 
tion, their  patriotism  and  their  morality,  and  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  confessed  themselves  deceived  in  each.  In  this  very 
hour  it  is  almost  impossible  to  arouse  the  North  to  the  full 
reality  of  the  revolt.  It  proceeds  upon  motives  and  by  mea- 
sures so  foreign  to  the  experience,  so  contrary  to  the  habits 
and  feelings  of  the  loyal  States,  that  a year  must  yet  elapse, 
in  all  probability,  before  any  adequate  sense  of  the  enormity 
of  the  conspiracy  will  beat  its  way  with  cannon  and  bayonet 
into  the  mind  of  a great,  honest  and  civilized  people,  accus- 
tomed to  think  that  human  beings  in  the  nineteenth  century 
are  governed  by  their  interests,  their  consciences  and  their 
affections,  and  not  by  their  spite  and  their  folly. 

There  are  moreover  general  and  universal  reasons  why  the 
North  should  prove  a blundering  and  a disappointed  antago- 
nist of  the  South  during  the  first  year  of  the  war — reasons  most 
honorable  and  eloquent ; reasons  which  will  turn  into  argu- 
ments and  weapons  of  success,  after  acting  as  grounds  of  weak- 
ness and  defeat. 

On  the  part  of  the  North  this  is  a war  of  principle  : on  the 
part  of  the  South,  of  pride  and  policy.  Wars  of  principle  are 
much  more  difficult  to  wage  with  vigor  and  immediate  success 
than  wars  of  interest  or  passion.  They  appeal  to  a less  defi- 
nite, a more  remote,  and  of  course  a less  popular  class  of  feel- 
ings. A war  of  policy  or  of  passion  presents  a sharp,  crisp  cry, 
easily  caught  and  easily  re-echoed.  Wars  of  principle  imply 
persons  of  principle  to  conduct  them,  and  methods  of  principle 
by  which  they  are  pursued.  They  raise  scruples  which  must 
be  laid,  involve  a character  and  conscience  which  must  be 
respected,  and  in  every  way  impair  at  the  first,  the  decisiveness, 
vigor  and  promptness  which  reckless  passion  and  unscrnpu- 


7 


Ions  policy  know  how  to  use.  A ruffian  has  very  much 
the  advantage  of  a Christian  gentleman  in  a street  quarrel. — 
He  has  no  respect  for  rights,  appearances,  or  consequences. 
He  loves  a brawl,  and  the  better  dressed  and  the  more  respec- 
table his  antagonist,  the  greater  the  satisfaction  of  flinging  him 
into  the  mud.  It  is  not  main  strength  or  superior  courage, 
that  gives  him  his  first  advantages;  but  the  reluctance  which 
his  foe  has  to  quarrel  at  all ; especially  to  quarrel  with  a ruf- 
fian ; and  most  of  all  to  quarrel  in  a ruffian  way.  A war 
of  principle  commences  reluctantly,  with  a thousand  mis- 
givings of  conscience,  and  ten  thousand  antipathies  of  taste, 
sensibility  and  affection.  It  proceeds  feebly,  because  embar- 
rassed with  scruples  and  doubts.  It  at  first  only  preaches  war, 
and  attempts  to  do  by  words  of  warning  and  threatening,  or 
by  proclamations,  and  votes  of  men  and  money,  what  has  in 
the  end,  after  most  debilitating  delay,  to  be  done  with  powder 
and  ball.  But  fairly  brought  to  this,  its  conscience  actually 
cast  into  cannon,  its  convictions  fairly  sharpened  into  bayo- 
nets, let  policy  and  passion  beware,  for  their  day  of  judgment 
is  at  hand  ! 

Again.  Wars  are  inaugurated  more  slowly,  and  their  ear- 
lier measures  are  more  feeble  and  inadequate,  in  prosperous, 
enlightened  and  highly  civilized  communities,  than  in  less 
wealthy,  less  contented  and  less  developed  ones.  It  is  not 
merely  that  peace  and  comfort,  justice  and  mercy  diminish 
the  martial  spirit  of  a people,  but  that  a rich  and  diversified 
social  system  has  so  many  interests  dependent  on  the  continu- 
ance of  order  and  peace — has  so  much  to  lose  by  the  most  suc- 
cessful war,  and  so  little  to  gain  by  it,  has  so  unreservedly 
accommodated  itself  to  the  temperate  climate  of  established 
law,  that  it  will  suffer  anything  but  the  loss  of  less-respect, 
before  committing  itself  irretrievably  to  the  fearful  arbitra- 
ment of  the  sword.  There  is  no  comparison  between  the  sacri- 
fices which  a prosperous  people  make  on  entering  on  a war, 
and  those  required  of  a people  accustomed  to  have  and  to  ex- 
pect little. 

Without  a wide-spread  commerce  and  a diversified  trade, 
with  an  income  derived  directly  from  the  soil,  and  not  from 
stocks  and  mortgages  ; with  no  splendid  cities,  and  little  do- 


8 


mestic  elegance  or  comfort,  what  has  such  a people  to  dread 
in  war.  when  compared  with  a country  whose  ships  dot  every 
sea,  whose  trade  penetrates  every  portion  of  the  globe,  whose 
wealth  is  invested  in  rail-roads  and  banks,  in  marine  and  fire 
insurance  companies,  and  in  the  thousand  new  enterprises 
which  depend  on  capital  for  their  start,  and  on  peace  for  their 
success?  It  is  a fearful  thing  for  a rich  and  happy  and  pow- 
erful country  to  go  to  war ! In  proportion  to  its  wealth  and 
power  will  usually  be  its  reluctance;  and  in  proportion  to  its 
reluctance  will  be  its  indecision,  its  willingness  to  suffer  many 
indignities,  and  to  pay  with  many  reverses,  for  the  chance  of 
averting  the  catastrophe  ! Hut,  the  very  wealth  and  pros- 
perity which  makes  it  slow  to  anger  and  forbearing  towards 
provocation,  much  enduring  and  even  low  spirited,  must  ren- 
der it  tremendously  energetic  and  powerful,  when  it  is  fairly 
aroused  to  the  peril  that  threatens  all  its  possessions.  If  it 
have  little  to  gain  by  victory  it  has  every  thing  to  lose  by  de- 
feat. We  have  only  to  look  at  the  unpromising  way  in  which 
English  wars  commence  and  the  successful  way  in  which  they 
terminate,  to  understand  how  a high  civilization  hesitates  and 
stumbles  at  the  opening  of  a quarrel,  but  rallies  and  crushes 
everything  before  if  before  it  is  ended. 

Again.  War  is  a peculiarly  foreign  and  inconvenient  work 
for  a democracy.  The  distribution  of  responsibility,  the  sub- 
division of  labor,  the  individual  independence  and  privacy  of 
judgment,  encouraged  and  attained  under  free  and  popular- 
institutions,  are  eminently  incompatible  with  the  concentration, 
unanimity,  alertness  and  decision  required  in  the  inceptioh 
and  carrying  on  of  a prompt,  vigorous  and  successful  war. 
Freemen  have  to  unlearn  their  social  wisdom,  resign  their  in- 
dividuality, agglomerate  their  jealously  guarded  indepen- 
dencies, and  unsay  and  undo  much  that  they  value  most  in 
peace,  before  they  are  prepared  to  adopt  the  measures  and 
methods,  the  prompt,  common,  united,  comprehensive  policy 
required  by  war.  Consolidation,  unlimited  confidence,  the 
abandonment  of  debate,  criticism  and  jealousy  of  power,  dis- 
regard of  economy,  neglect  of  private  interests,  wishes  and 
tastes,  these,  the  weaknesses  of  peace  are  the  sinews  of  war ; 
these,  the  common  scourges  of  a monarchy,  and  most  dreaded 


9 


by  a commonwealth  in  its  pacific  state,  are  the  sole  safeguards 
of  a republic  in  its  time  of  war.  But  when  danger  and  suffer- 
ing have  taught  democracies,  as  in  Athens,  the  necessity  of 
suppressing  private  opinions  for  the  public  good,  and  sinking 
private  interests  in  the  common  welfare,  what  solidarity  of  de- 
termination and  action  ever  attained  by  absolutism  equals  that 
which  is  presented  by  the  voluntary  consent  of  the  most  disin- 
tegrate and  individual  communities,  merging  their  intelligent 
atoms  in  a mass,  that  is  determined  to  have  only  one  will  and 
oneway?  No  class  of  men  in  the  world  are  less  disposed  to 
become  soldiers,  or  are  less  easily  converted  into  them,  than 
the  best  class — those  who  think,  feel  aud  act  for  themselves; 
but  none  are  capable  of  such  discipline,  courage,  and  effi- 
ciency when  brought  to  the  necessity. 

Again.  The  great  political  maxim  of  freemen,  “ that  govern- 
ment is  best  which  governs  least,”  a maxim  never  to  be 
enough  honored  in  peace  is  obliged  to  be  reversed  in  war,  and 
the  period  during  which  the  vigor,  self-direction  and  self-pro- 
tection essential  to  free  institutions  in  their  ordinary  and  pa- 
cific state,  are  passing  back  for  the  uses  of  war  into  the  shrunk- 
en veins  of  the  government,  purposely  and  wisely  kept  at  the 
lowest  point  of  activity  in  periods  of  prosperity,  is  the  weakest 
moment  of  a republic.  Just  how  far  it  is  safe  and  prudent  in 
ordinary  times  to  allow  the  machinery  of  government  to  grow 
rusty  lest  it  should  usurp  the  offices  of  liberty  by  too  intrusive 
an  activity,  we  have  no  time  to  consider.  On  the  whole,  the 
rapidity  with  which  our  political  apparatus  has  adjusted 
itself  to  that  for  which  it  was  not  made,  and  should  not  be 
most  valued — a state  of  war — is  favorable  to  that  policy  of  free 
institutions  which  places  as  little  of  the  life  of  the  people  out 
of  their  own  hands  as  possible.  It  is  probably  better  to  run 
the  risk  of  feebleness  in  possible  wars  than  encounter  the  cer- 
tainty of  over-government  in  peace.  Important  lessons,  both 
of  encouragement  and  warning,  are  to  be  learned  from  our 
present  serious  experience  in  regard  to  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  government  when  on  a peace  footing.  But  it  is  import- 
ant that  the  strength  of  our  institutions  should  not  be  abso- 
lutely confounded  with  the  vigor  and  stability  of  the  federal 
government.  Our  principal  institutions  are  municipal,  social, 

2 


10 


educational  and  religious ; not  federal.  Our  strength  as  a 
people,  our  prosperity  and  success  are  not  to  be  sought  in  the 
study  of  either  our  congress,  cabinet,  or  general  government. 
Let  the  critic  who  would  understand  us,  live  in  our  families, 
travel  in  our  interior,  talk  with  our  common  people,  compare 
the  manners,  customs  and  standards  of  morals,  of  living  and  of 
intelligence,  with  those  of  any  people  on  the  earth,  and  if  they 
prove  not  immeasurably  higher  we  will  confess  that  our  insti- 
tutions have  failed.  But  because  our  very  local  and  indi- 
vidual success  has  weakened  in  time  of  peace  the  importance 
of  the  general  government,  created  indifference  to  political  ac- 
tion, and  allowed  some  temporary  decay  to  attack  the  federal 
machinery  ; or  because  slavery,  an  evil  recognized  from  the 
first,  has  even  seriously  deranged  the  workings  of  the  central 
engine,  we  are  not  for  a moment,  conscious  as  we  are  of  the 
grave  misfortune  and  serious  peril  of  such  a disorder,  to  over- 
look, or  allow  others  to  overlook  the  fact  that  American  insti- 
tutions are  not  identical  with  the  mere  mechanism  of  the  U. 
S.  Government,  and  that  we,  the  same  people  who  made  it, 
are  fully  capable  of  mending  it,  and  if  necessary,  of  amending 
it;  and  that  not  a jot.  of  our  liberty,  our  intelligence,  or  our 
worth  are  going  to  disappear  with  any  calamity  which  may 
threaten  our  present  federal  relations  and  organization. 

So  much  in  explanation  of  the  past  of  this  war;  so  much  in 
defence  of  our  institutions,  on  the  hypothesis  that  our  federal 
government  has  shown  itself  weak  and  incompetent  to  deal 
with  our  difficulties  in  a way  to  satisfy  the  expectations  of 
patriots  at  home  and  critics  abroad  ; so  much  even  on  the 
supposition  that  the  government  breaks  down,  in  favor  of  the 
prospect  of  the  nations  surviving,  and  the  genuine  civilization 
of  the  free  and  loyal  States  triumphing  over  the  illegitimate 
civilization  of  the  slave  States. 

Six  weeks  ago,  we  must  needs  confess,  it  was  natural  and 
necessary  to  seek  encouragement  and  hope  in  contemplating 
the  nation,  as  a power  not  adequately  represented  by  the 
government.  We  did  not  see  our  strength,  resolution,  earn- 
estness and  energy  represented  there.  We  found  ourselves 
outnumbered  in  every  battle-field,  while  our  own  offered  regi- 
ments were  rejected,  for  reasons  we  could  not  then  understand. 
The  first  great  battle,  under  the  general  conduct  of  our  great 


11 


military  chieftain,  and  the  immediate  command  of  a carefully 
chosen  U.  S.  general,  had,  unexpectedly  to  most,  gone  ter- 
ribly against  us.  There  was  a natural,  an  almost  universal 
feeling,  that  our  imperfect  preparation,  our  unsuccessful  mili- 
tary guidance,  our  ill-chosen  officers,  were  due  to  the  lack  of 
judgment,  energy  and  statesmanship  on  the  part  of  the  admi- 
nistration, or  more  charitably,  to  the  essential  weakness  ot  the 
government  itself,  and  its  inadequacy  to  meet  so  terrible  a cri- 
sis. In  that  state  of  mind,  and  under  what  we  now  believe  to 
be  erroneous  impressions,  we  were  ready  at  the  North  to 
demand  either  the  re-casting  of  the  administration,  or  the 
adoption  of  a policy  which  should  make  the  preservation  ot 
the  Union,  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  secondary  to  any 
methods  prompted  by  the  right  of  self-preservation.  A con- 
scious ability  to  maintain  the  cause  of  liberty  and  right,  to 
perpetuate  American  principles  and  ideas,  made  the  people 
terribly  impatient  of  the  seeming  inability  of  the  government 
to  give  effect  to  their  will  and  expression  to  their  determina- 
tion. They  did  not  stop  to  ask  themselves  what  other  account 
might  be  given  of  the  slowness  and  the  delay  at  Washington 
besides  incompetency  or  lack  of  zeal  and  energy  in  the  Cabi- 
net, or  worse — the  failure  of  the  governmental  machinery  it- 
self, put  to  this  new  and  tremendous  trial.  They  did  not  at 
once  appreciate  that  this  war  stretches  over  a wider  territory, 
embraces  vaster  spaces  and  more  numerous  strategical  points, 
calls  for  a more  extensive  and  efficient  locomotive  apparatus, 
and  a finer  and  grander  generalship,  than  anything  in  the  his- 
tory of  modern  campaigns  ; that  a commercial  and  industrial 
people,  who,  out  of  its  cities,  had  absolute^  forgotten  the  use 
of  arms,  wras  suddenly  called  onto  furnish  two  or  three  mighty 
corps  d'armee,  and  with  a bare  handful  of  educated  military 
men,  to  extemporize  thousands  of  officers  to  lead  it ; that  our 
little  army  of  regulars,  accustomed  chiefly  to  the  defence  of 
the  frontiers  against  the  attacks  of  savages,  afforded  but  a tiny 
skeleton  on  which  to  clothe  a vast  national  force;  that  neither 
in  waggons,  uniforms  and  accoutrements,  in  artillery,  or  in 
other  weapons,  especially  after  the  grand  larceny  the  nation 
had  suffered  from  the  house-breakers  who  successfully  passed 
themselves  oft'  as  house-keepers  in  the  late  administration, 


12 


were  we  supplied  with  the  means  of  arming  half  the  patriot- 
ism of  the  North  ; and  that  the  Cabinet,  in  a capital  city,  sti- 
fled in  the  malaria  of  the  disloyal  Potomac,  and  surrounded 
in  every  department  with  the  traitors  whom  successive  South- 
ern administrations  had  stalled  in  every  crib  of  the  national 
stable — with  spies  in  every  company,  at  every  board,  and  of 
all  ages  and  colors,  and  both  sexes,  had  difficulties  to  contend 
with,  protean  in  shape  and  gigantic  in  form — difficulties  which 
no  energy,  zeal  or  patriotism  could  deal  with  at  once  or  de- 
cisively— difficulties  which  only  time  and  patience,  and  ten- 
tative processes  could  safely  and  successfully  overcome — dif- 
ficulties which  in  part  the  manufacturing  resources  of  the 
nation  must  have  time  to  relieve — difficulties  in  other  part  of 
a moral  and  political  kind,  felt  in  their  full  force  only  by  those 
directly  and  immediately  responsible  for  dealing  with  them, 
and  which  it  also  required  time  to  treat.  Nay,  the  nation  it- 
self would  not  have  borne  at  the  start  the  very  measures  it 
afterwards  reproachfully  demanded  from  the  government. 
It  was  not  only  the  border  States  that  were  to  be  humored 
and  conciliated  before  being  constrained  and  subdued,  but  a 
great  party  at  the  North,  at  the  outset  immensely  sore  and 
hostile  to  the  administration,  had  also  to  be  studied  and  de- 
ferred to,  lest  the  anticipated  rupture  and  division  here,  on 
which  the  South  so  boldly  reckoned,  should  become  disastrous 
history.  The  administration  could  not  reward  its  own  parti- 
sans with  offices,  and  must  suffer  their  impatient  and  not  un- 
natural complaints  ; it  could  not  boldly  express  its  own  anti- 
slavery policy  after  the  desertion  of  the  Southern  senators, 
representatives  and  judges  made  it  in  some  measure  the  guar- 
dian of  their  unrepresented  rights  under  the  constitution.  If 
they  had  stayed,  the  administration  would  have  expected  them 
to  look  out  for  themselves,  while  it  more  freely  spoke  the  mind 
of  the  majority  that  elected  it.  But  so  long  as  the  theory  of 
the  government  is  that  the  South  is  not  a,  belligerent  but  a 
rebel ; that  this  is  not  war,  but  revolt ; that  our  military  force 
is  a vast  posse  coniitatus  and  not  an  ordinary  army,  it  is  bound 
to  acknowledge  that  the  Rebel  States  are  still  under  the  con- 
stitution, and  though  to  be  treated  as  criminals,  are  still  en- 
titled to  the  rights  of  citizens. 


13 


All  these  difficulties,  when  properly  considered,  especially 
when  they  are  understood  as  they  only  can  be,  when  the  secret 
history  of  this  war  is  written,  will,  in  our  judgment,  show 
that  the  administration  lias  put  forth  its  utmost  exertions,  and 
exhibited  an  alacrity  and  administrative  ability  which  entitle 
it  to  the  confidence  and  the  gratitude  of  the  nation.  Undoubt- 
edly, the  government  of  the  United  States  must,  upon  the  very 
theory  of  it,  be  usually  far  behind  the  nation  in  power,  in  zeal, 
in  energy.  We  keep  it  there  by  the  principled  smallness  of 
our  army  and  navy,  by  the  untempting  pettiness  of  our  go- 
vernmental salaries,  and  by  the  natural  and  proper  jealousy 
with  which  our  towns,  counties  and  States  retain  all  the  local 
authority  which  can  be  saved  from  delegation  to  the  central 
power.  It  is  the  glory,  beauty  and  success  of  our  American 
system.  Long  may  this  policy  continue  to  enjoy  the  confidence 
and  affection  of  the  people  ! Yet  it  is  simply  impossible 
that  the  army  and  navy  we  know  to  be  adequate  to  our 
ordinary  condition,  or  the  departments  and  officials  equal 
to  our  usual  wants,  should  at  once  be  competent  to  deal  with 
such  a state  of  affairs  as  the  last  six  months  has  presented. — 
But  ought  we  to  be  always  prepared  for  a vast  civil  war,  such 
as  can  only  occur  once  in  a century  or  two  ? Should  we  imitate 
those  foreign  nations  that  emulate  each  other  in  Cherbourg 
and  Portsmouth,  Dover  and  Calais;  and  in  great  standing  ar- 
mies, such  as  France,  Austria,  Prussia,  Russia  and  England 
maintain?  No!  the  theory  of  our  government  is,  that  the 
people,  if  rendered  free,  intelligent  and  happy,  will  on  emer- 
gency, through  the  spontaneous  exercise  of  their  liberality, 
versatility  and  patriotism,  supply  speedily  the  lack  of  prepara- 
tion in  the  government ; and  after  briefly  suffering  the  inevi- 
table consequences  of  a small  governmental  apparatus,  rapidly 
swell  the  military  and  all  the  other  resources  of  the  govern- 
ment to  an  extent  sufficient  to  cope  with  any  enemy.  We 
expend  on  the  nation,  we  entrust  to  the  nation,  we  rely  upon 
the  nation ; where  other  people  expend  upon,  entrust  to  and  rely 
upon  the  government.  Our  preparation  for  war  is,  in  the 
main,  the  education  of  the  people  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  ; in 
the  use  and  enjoyment  of  freedom,  in  the  exercise  of  all  their 
rights  and  all  their  powers ; and  in  the  wealth,  skill,  versatili- 


14 


ty,  talent,  independence  and  patriotism  which  such  institutions 
create,  we  expect  to  find  the  spirit  and  the  will,  the  ability 
and  the  genius,  to  make  a mighty  navy  and  army,  and  a 
mighty  government  too,  if  not  in  a month  or  six  months,  yet 
soon  enough  to  protect  ourselves  from  the  last  consequences 
of  foreign  insult  or  domestic  treason,  and  to  punish  with  ever 
memorable  retribution  those  who  presume  upon  our  peaceful 
habits,  and  during  their  short  successes  dare  to  taunt  our  un- 
military ways. 

We  have  an  illustration  of  the  rapidity  and  success  with 
which  the  life,  energy  and  genius  of  the  nation,  usually  lodged 
in  its  limbs,  flows  to  the  governmental  heart,  in  the  extraordi- 
nary rapidity  with  which  our  people  have  already  converted 
themselves — against  all  their  tastes,  habits  and  antecedents — 
into  a great  military  power!  Unaccustomed  to  arms,  unused 
to  subordination,  jealous  of  military  authority;  little  interest- 
ed even  in  federal  movements  ; strongly  individual,  and  most 
reluctant  to  merge  self-government  in  routine  and  machinery; 
well-fed,  well-clothed,  and  in  easy  and  happy  circumstances  at 
home,  our  people  have  resisted  every  previous  habit,  over- 
come every  natural  taste,  in  the  ardor  of  their  patriotism,  and 
made  themselves  by  a rapid  and  complete  transformation,  a 
nation  of  soldiers.  Yes,  of  soldiers!  and  such  soldiers,  we 
verily  believe,  as  the  world  never  saw!  Military  education 
and  martial  habits  and  training,  are  important  things,  but  no 
free  nation  can  depend  upon  them  for  its  protection  against 
either  domestic  or  foreign  foes,  when  either  rises  into  magni- 
tude. Military  establishments  and  standing  armies  belong  to 
aristocratic  and  unpopular  forms  of  government.  The  militia 
and  the  volunteer  force  are  the  grand  defence  of  democratic 
institutions.  A government  resting  on  the  will  of  the  people 
must  trust  itself  to  the  protection  of  the  people,  who  will 
themselves  into  soldiers,  when  their  liberties  are  threatened. 
This  is  a volunteer  government;  a nation  of  volanteers;  and 
it  must  be  protected  in  the  last  extremity,  by  a volunteer  sol- 
diery. Volunteer  officers  leading  volunteer  ranks,  will  outdo 
in  the  end,  either  its  militia  or  its  regular  army.  And  great 
as  this  mystery  may  be  to  other  nations,  or  to  merely  military 
men,  it  is  no  mystery  to  those  who  know  that  affection,  intelli- 


15 


gence,  and  a direct  stake  in  the  conflict  supply  qualities  which 
are  more  than  a match  for  experience,  drill  and  professional 
knowledge ; while  they  create  an  aptitude  for  receiving  these, 
which  enables  a few  months  to  do,  with  such  a people,  the 
work  oi  years  in  respect  of  military  education.  The  efficient 
leaders  in  this  war  will  prove  to  be  not  purely  military  men, 
but  men  educated  both  in  civil  and  in  military  life;  men  who 
early  trained  in  the  science  of  war,  have  passed  the  chief  pe- 
riod of  their  lives  in  the  active  duties  of  civilians.  The  sphere 
of  a military  man  in  our  country  in  time  of  peace  is  so  con- 
tracted, that  let  his  genius  be  what  it  may,  he  cannot  but 
shrink  in  course  of  years  in  all  the  proportions  which  fit  him 
for  large  practical  views  and  operations,  even  of  a military 
kind.  The  exceptions  are  of  those  men  who  have  been  kept 
by  the  government  busy  at  large  public  works  ; thus  bringing 
them  into  various  associations  with  civilians,  and  accustoming 
them  to  large  and  complicated  affairs,  both  monetary  and  ad- 
ministrative. Such  a man  is  the  Quarter-master  General 
Meigs,  who  could  not  be  surpassed  by  any  civilian  in  compe- 
tency for  his  post ; one  of  the  most  exacting  in  the  army  or 
the  government.  The  real  life,  talent  and  energy  of  the  nation 
must  find  its  way  into  the  army  and  navy  before  the  govern- 
ment can  do  what  the  country  demands.  And  they  are  pass- 
ing there  just  as  rapidly  as  a proper,  decent  and  necessary  re- 
gard for  forms  and  vested  rights,  and  natural  and  educated 
expectations  will  permit.  Who  would  not  despise  a govern- 
ment that  without  first  testing  the  competency  of  its  regular 
officers,  crowded  civilians  over  their  heads ; or  without  giving 
age  and  rank  its  opportunity,  hastily  overrode  both,  to  satisfy 
its  impatience  for  energy  and  success? 

Position,  expectation,  rank  have  their  rights,  and  they  are 
to  be  respected.  They  must  at  first  be  trusted  and  followed. 
When  they  come  short  of  the  case,  they  must  be  superseded. 
And  in  a war  like  this,  and  on  the  scale  of  this,  competency 
and  competency  alone,  comes  very  rapidly  to  be  the  profound 
necessity  which  both  people  and  government  consider.  He  who 
watches  the  newT  appointments  and  the  new  orderings — who 
notices  who  are  at  the  chiel  posts  of  danger  and  in  the  places 
of  highest  command,  will  see  that  the  administration,  without 


16 


undignified  haste  or  unfeeling  neglect,  is  placing  the  right 
men  in  the  right  places  ; mingling  the  claims  of  civil  and  ad- 
ministrative power  with  those  of  military  experience;  lifting 
volunteers  according  to  their  capacity  and  genius  to  their  pro- 
per height;  placing — a glorious  augury — Dupont  and  Davis, 
and  Rogers  and  Porter  in  one  fleet;  and  men  like  McClel- 
lan and  Burnside,  and  Banks  and  Dix,  and  Fremont  and  Sie- 
gel and  Rosecrans — all  civilians  as  much  as  soldiers — all  with 
hearts  full  of  the  freshest  life-blood  of  our  energetic,  wide  and 
deep  national  life,  at  the  head  of  our  several  columns. 

We  are  neither  the  apologists  for,  nor  the  eulogists  of,  the 
adminislration,  considered  as  a republican  administration. — 
Thank  God  Ave  have  risen  as  a people  above  all  party  conside- 
rations. But  no  one  can  during  these  last  months  have  pass- 
ed much  time  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  enjoyed  more 
than  common  opportunities  to  understand  the  working  of 
things,  without  feeling  it  to  be  a duty  to  advocate  the  hearty 
and  trustful  support  of  the  administration,  simply  because  it 
is  the  government ; and  because  it  has  done  all  that  could  be 
reasonably  expected  under  the  circumstances  and  in  the  diffi- 
culties amid  which  it  has  been  struggling. 

Moreover,  it  seems  important  to  urge,  that  Avhile  this  is  a 
people’s  war,  to  be  carried  on  by  the  generous  sacrifices  of  the 
people,  and  under  the  leadings  of  the  popular  will  properly 
expressed,  it  is  not  now,  whatever  it  may  have  threatened  to 
become — whatever  our  panic  fears  may  at  one  time  have  led 
us  almost  to  hope  it  would  be  made — a national  revolution, 
through  which  daily  experience  was  to  be  our  only  guide  ; a 
war  which  the  newspapers  or  the  pulpit,  or  the  popular  ora- 
tors were  to  carry  on,  under  the  inspiration  ot  humanity,  or 
piety,  or  patriotism.  Had  the  government  broken  down  in- 
stead of  strengthening  every  day- — had  it  continued,  as  at  one 
time  it  Avas  feared  it  might  do,  to  lose,  hoAvever  unjustly,  the 
confidence  of  the  nation — had  the  peril  of  invasion  of  our  ca- 
pital from  our  rebel  enemy  increased,  then  Ave  might  have 
been  obliged  to  say,  “ the  law  of  self-preservation  is  the  first 
law  of  every  nation.  We  will  no  longer  vainly  seek  to  save 
ourselves  by  legal  or  constitutional  methods.  The  life  of  the 
country  is  threatened — aye,  is  in  imminent,  urgent  danger.  We 


17 


demand  new  leaders,  a new  policy,  a total  disregard  of  all  past 
agreements,  compromises  and  pledges.  We  will  cut  away  the 
constitution,  or  anything  else  to  save  the  national  ship  from 
foundering.  If  slavery  is  the  assassin  of  the  nation,  shoot  it 
down  without  mercy  ! If  we  must  exterminate  our  enemy,  or 
be  exterminated  by  him,  let  us  not  be  chary  about  our  wea- 
pons, but  seize  the  first  and  the  heaviest  that  come  to  hand  ! 
Let  us  begin  with  declaring  emancipation  in  the  border  States, 
and  write  as  we  advance,  Freedom  to  the  Slave  on  every 
banner. 

Who  can  deny  the  thrill  of  satisfaction  that  such  language 
sent  and  still  sends  to  the  heart ; or  does  not  impulsively  ex- 
claim that  it  would  pay  for  almost  every  other  misfortune  to 
rid  the  nation  of  that  shameful  curse  ? Doubtless  there  were 
many  among  the  best  and  purest  in  the  land,  who  were  cpiite 
reconciled  to  the  alleged  inability  of  the  government  to  pro- 
tect itself  without  adopting  a policy  as  near  to  revolution  as 
possible,  because  they  deemed,  in  all  probability,  that  would 
free  the  slave,  whatever  other  trouble  it  might  bring  on  the 
nation . 

But  on  cooler  reflection,  is  there  not  much  to  chasten  these 
sentiments  and  give  pause  to  the  policy  they  would  inspire  ? 
The  government  has  been  compelled  already,  for  its  own  salva- 
tion and  for  the  protection  of  the  nation,  to  transcend  many  laws  ; 
to  assume  many  illegal  responsibilities  ; to  use  much  martial  law 
and  to  violate  some  of  the  most  cherished  sanctities  of  the  con- 
stitution. It  has,  however,  evidently  most  reluctantly,  most 
cautiously  and  with  the  profoundest  regret,  seen  itself  driven 
to  this  course.  It  must  very  well  know  that  only  the  most 
desperate  necessity  could  justify  it;  and  that  after  the  necessity 
had  passed  by,  many,  underrating,  or  forgetting  it,  would  hold 
the  government  to  a very  jealous  account  for  yielding  to  it. 
But  with  a conscience,  which  the  memory  of  their  sacred 
oaths  of  office  must  have  constantly  invigorated,  the  govern- 
ment has  continually  sought  to  confine  itself  within  the  chan- 
nels of  its  legitimate  functions  and  powers.  And  as  it  gains 
strength  and  more  ability  to  control  the  rebellion,  it  shows  a 
still  greater  sensibility  to  its  oaths,  a more  anxious  disposition 
to  use  as  few  of  the  rights  of  revolution,  or  the  legalized  ille- 

3 


18 


galities  of  martial  law,  as  the  most  strenuous  employment  of 
its  normal  powers  can  make  possible. 

And  it  is  to  this  policy,  unpopular  because  seemingly  post- 
poning the  downfall  of  slavery;  unpopular,  because  not  in  the 
high  enthusiastic  vein  of  mere  moralists  or  pietists ; unpopu- 
lar, because  so  easily  stigmatized  as  temporizing  and  half-way, 
that  in  our  sober  and  religious  judgment,  the  good  sense,  the 
loyalty,  and  the  piety  of  the  nation  ought  from  this  time  forth 
to  lend  its  trustful  and  complete  support. 

We  are  bound  to  uphold  the  government,  the  constitution 
and  the  laws,  or  to  pronounce  them  annulled  by  revolution. 
If  we  are  not  prepared  for  revolution  (and  God  knows  we  have 
no  moral  right  to  proceed  to  that,  except  under  the  direst  ne- 
cessity, to  which  no  decent  pretence  can  now  be  made),  we 
are  bound  to  abide,  we  do  not  say  not  by  the  policy  of  the  admi- 
nistration, but  by  the  policy  of  the  constitution  itself;  and  that 
policy  forbids  us  to  deal  with  slavery,  under  present  circum- 
stances, otherwise  than  as  the  constitution  allows.  We  have 
boasted  that  this  war  was  not  a war  upon  slavery,  though  it 
has  been  created  by  slavery  ; not  a war  upon  the  South, 
though  it  has  been  brought  about  by  the  South.  Let  us  make 
good  our  boast.  If  we  are  a government,  and  mean  to  abide 
by  the  government — if  we  are  a nation  and  mean  to  abide  by 
our  antecedents  as  a nation,  let  us  not  weakly  own  that  our 
constitution  and  our  Union  are  failures;  that  our  fathers  made 
a fabric  that  would  not  stand  a century  ; or  that  the  one  great 
but  inevitable  evil  accepted  by  them,  and  woven  in  as  a dark 
thread  in  our  otherwise  unshaded  fabric  of  political  life,  we 
cannot  now  ravel  out  by  patent  constitutional  ways,  but  must 
tear  the  whole  warp  and  woof  in  shreds  to  pluck  it  out  of  our 
garments. 

We  little  know  the  terrible  consequences  of  even  the  most 
moral  and  virtuous  anarchy;  of  breaking  up  a government 
and  a constitution  even  for  the  most  serious  and  disinterested 
ends.  Sooner  or  later  indeed,  we  shall  have  to  pay  heavily 
for  the  necessary  wounds  given  to  law  and  constitutional  liberty, 
by  the  exigencies  of  this  rebellion.  Revolt  on  one  side  tends  to 
produce  tyranny  on  the  other  ; the  absurd  claims  of  State  sove- 
reignty, to  excuse  or  even  make  indispensable  a dangerous 


19 


excess  of  federal  power.  The  conveniences  of  martial  law, 
slowly  nurse  military  dictatorships.  History  teaches  us  that  the 
despotism  of  the  sword  is  something  that  grows  from  very  inno- 
cent beginnings.  It  is  instructive  and  it  is  alarming  to  see  how 
those  who  have  been  the  friends  of  the  largest  liberty  and  the 
greatest  personal  independence,  now  impetuously  favor  cen- 
tralization, dictatorship,  irresponsible  and  illegal  power,  if  it 
only  serve  their  immediate  purpose.  They  see  no  danger  in 
arresting  citizens  on  mere  suspicion,  in  quenching  unpopular 
and  unpatriotic  presses,  in  taking  any  amount  of  unconstitu- 
tional liberty  with  State  or  private  rights,  if  only  the  rebellion 
is  moi’e  quickly  put  down,  and  slavery  more  rapidly  got  rid  of. 
We  allow,  for  we  feel,  that  this  is  all  very  pleasant  now.  It 
meets  our  wishes,  it  has  our  cordial  sympathy.  But  we  con- 
fess that  we  dread  the  direction  in  which  these  things  point. 
We  know  whither  they  have  gone  in  other  rebellions— how 
bitter  the  fruits  such  seed  have  borne ! and  therefore  we  warn 
the  country  it  is  time  to  return  as  swiftly  as  possible  to  the 
normal  law ; to  stick  by  the  constitution,  and  to  sustain  the 
government  most  heartily  just  where  we  see  it  most  scrupu- 
lous of  law,  and  most  tender  of  all  the  rights  of  all  the  people. 
To  risk  our  constitution  and  our  union,  our  historic  life  and 
national  identity,  even  to  get  rid  at  a blow,  of  slavery,  is  what 
only  fanatics  and  reckless  enthusiasts  would  dare  to  propose  or 
could  hope  would  succeed.  But  revolution  would  not  rid  us 
of  slavery  ; it  would  merely  change  its  form  and  leave  ns  the 
refuse  of  a race’of  negro  serfs,  to  suffer  in  unspeakable  ways 
from  their  own  ignorance  and  inaptitude  to  self-protection, 
after  deluging  the  soil  of  the  South  with  mingled  streams  of 
Saxon  and  African  blood. 

Riddance  of  slavery  is  the  longing  of  every  true  American 
heart;  but  violent,  unmetliodized,  rapid  emancipation  would 
be  the  gravest  wrong  we  could  do  the  slave.  We  have  no 
right  to  injure  him  so  fatally  in  order  to  clear  our  skirts  from 
the  stain  of  slavery.  We  are  bound  as  a nation  to  set  him 
free;  but  in  ways  safe,  favorable  and  just  for  him.  And  if 
this  war  be  vigorously  carried  on  by  the  government,  with 
the  cordial  and  unlimited  support  of  the  people,  but  upon  con- 
stitutional principles — with  the  smallest  possible  violence  to 


20 


law,  and  with  the  greatest  tenderness  to  our  political  obliga- 
tions, we  shall  in  God’s  good  providence  do  more  to  break  the 
power  of  slavery,  and  to  prepare  for  the  safe  and  rapid  ex- 
tinction of  it,  than  we  could  do  by  a dozen  revolutions ! 

Already  the  blockade  is  proving  to  England  that  her  pros- 
perity is  not  dependent  on  the  great  American  product  of 
slave  labor.  If  she  can  do  without  the  cotton  crop  of  the 
South  for  one  year,  she  can  do  without  it  forever — and  she  is 
doing  without  it.  Every  coat  in  England,  it  is  said,  is  worn 
in  succession  by  three  persons  in  descending  rank,  and  in  Ame- 
rica by  two.  If  in  each  country  it  can  be  made,  however  tatter- 
ed and  torn,  to  cover  one  more  back,  and  it  can — England  can 
do,  and  the  North  can  do,  without  this  year’s  yield  of  cotton  ! 
Both  countries  are  doing  without  it ; expect  to  do  without  it, 
and  are  both  doing  well ! England  is  cool  and  collected,  and 
has  not  the  feeblest  intention  to  break  the  blockade.  Her 
statesmen  see  indeed  that  the  blockade  is  breaking  England’s 
galling  chain  of  dependence  on  Southern  cotton,  and  that  now 
is  the  chance,  never  again  so  clear,  of  creating  by  the  stimulus 
of  high  prices  new  sources  of  cotton  supply,  and  so  changing 
the  whole  direction  and  relations  of  that  enormous  trade.  Other 
fibres  too  are  coming  rapidly  into  the  field  of  competition. — 
Distant  New  Zealand  offers  a reward  of  £4,000  for  a method 
of  utilizing  her  flax.  Tasmania  is  alive  with  industry  and  zeal 
in  the  development  of  this  rival  for  the  throne,  where  bastard 
cotton  for  one  generation  sat  undisputed  king,  and  thought 
himself  hereditary  lord?  Our  own  country  is  rapidly  disco- 
vering that  flax  is  as  cheap  as  cotton,  and  for  many  common 
purposes  better.  But  whether  this  new  fibre,  the  fruit  of 
free  labor,  is  to  hold  the  world  by  as  strong  a cord  as  cotton, 
or  no,  matters  not.  The  prestige  of  cotton,  and  the  profit  and 
necessity  of  slavery,  is  gone  with  the  grand  discovery  that 
neither  English  order  and  a contented  factory  population  there 
— nor  Northern  prosperity  and  commerce  are  to  be  smothered 
in  a single  cotton  crop,  however  stringently  held  at  home  by 
a people  who  meanwhile  strain  their  ears  in  vain  for  the  wel- 
come sounds  of  chartist  and  hungry  riot  in  the  streets  of  Man- 
chester, and  their  eyes  in  vain  for  the  predicted  prospect  of 
surging  flames  from  the  roofs  and  bloody  gutters  in  the  marble 


21 


palace  streets  of  mob-ruled  and  desolated  New  York.  That 
old  bugbear  is  vanished.  England  is  prosperous  without  our 
cotton.  The  North  is  essentially  whole  and  sound  and  flourish- 
ing though  the  Southern  trade  is  dead.  The  war  which  is  cost- 
ing the  South  the  loss  of  all  it  has — the  destruction  of  its  whole 
commerce,  the  depreciation  of  its  slave  property,  the  ruin  of 
its  financial  system — is  not  harming  the  loyal  States  to  any 
considerable  degree.  If  we  except  the  missing  industry  of  the 
men  in  the  field,  which  is  a loss  of  $150,000  a day,  we  hardly 
see  that  we  are  really  losing  anything  beside.  We  are  saving 
probably  a million  a day  by  our  economies  and  non-importa- 
tions. We  are  beginning  to  stimulate  our  own  manufacturing 
industry,  greatly.  We  are  expending  our  out-goes  at  home 
upon  the  nation  itself;  taking  money  in  vast  sums  from  one 
pocket  to  put  it  in  the  other.  Our  governmental  expenses  flow 
round  in  a steady  eddy,  which  may,  in  fifty  millions  at  a time, 
safely  reach  five  hundred  millions  before  it  will  seriously  de- 
range our  finances.  So  long  as  hardly  a dollar  gets  beyond 
Sandy  Hook,  what  matters  our  national  debt.  Is  it  anything 
but  a change  in  the  form  of  our  investments? 

We  have  seen  the  worst  already,  wdiether  in  the  field  or  in 
trade,  and  may  reasonably  expect  early  improvement  in  every 
form  of  business.  And  the  best  of  all  is  that  the  rebel  and 
slave  States,  while  ruining  themselves  as  slave-holders  by 
forcing  the  world  to  learn  its  independence  of  cotton,  are  them- 
selves, by  the  necessary  experiences  ot  their  insulation,  de- 
veloping forms  of  industry  and  unearthing  buried  resources, 
and  acquiring  habits  of  unavoidable  toil,  which  will,  if  the 
war  continues  two  years,  plant  among  them  a wholly  new  con- 
ception of  the  dignity  of  work ; raise  the  mean  whites  into 
formidable  competition  with  the  blacks  in  the  field  of  labor ; 
break  up  the  lazy  sleep  of  the  people ; diversify  the  monoto- 
nous industry  of  the  region  ; make  slavery  unprofitable  and  un- 
popular, and  open  the  road  for  emancipation  on  easy  and  ac. 
ceptable  terms,  which  they  will  not  improbably  propose  and 
we  can  accept  and  favor.  It  is  on  purely  economical  accounts 
not  desirable  that  the  war  should  be  short,  especially  if  to 
make  it  short  it  must  be  revolutionary. 

It  will  be  equally  good  for  the  North  and  the  South,  to  take 


22 


time  to  allow  the  principles  of  the  constitution  to  work  out 
their  penalties  as  well  as  their  blessings.  To  put  down  this 
rebellion,  constitutionally,  is  to  put  down  slavery,  in  the  only 
safe  and  effectual  way.  To  force  emancipation — to  break  the 
Union  and  the  constitution  to  free  the  slave — will  be  to  defeat 
our  national  destiny  and  not  accomplish  any  real  emancipa- 
tion for  the  slave  either.  His  chain  must  be  loosened  link  by 
link;  with  every  rivet  taken  out,  a habit  of  self-reliance  must 
be  put  m.  He  must  find  a varied  industry  about  him  ; he  must- 
see  white  men  laboring  with  him  ; he  must  get  a very  differ- 
ent idea  of  what  it  is  to  be  free,  from  what  the  knowledge  of 
his  idle,  or  imperious  master  gives  him,  before  he  can  be  safely 
trusted  to  himself.  Make  slavery  unprofitable  ; create  and  de- 
velop new  industry  on  its  old  field;  introduce  a new  population 
of  immigrants  from  the  North,  already  there  as  soldiers, . and 
many  of  them  predestined  to  stay ; let  the  process  going  on  in 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  Maryland,  Virginia,  creep  gradually  down 
to  the  Gulf ; offer  a moderate  premium  for  every  slave  set 
free  ; induce  by  purchase  the  border  States  to  become  wholly 
free  States,  and  the  work  is  done ! The  slaves  would  pass 
rapidly,  though  gradually,  over  into  free  laborers,  without 
losing  their  habits  of  industry  ; they  would  still  stick  to  the 
warm  soil  they  love ; the  rapid  increase  of  a white  population 
would  make  them  no  longer  an  element  of  danger  at  home. 
Colonization  would  be  favored  at  the  South ; the  now  unnatu- 
ral rate  of  their  increase  in  the  brutal  condition  of  slavery, 
would  cease  ; many  would  go  to  Central  America ; many  to 
Africa;  many  would  take  the  place  of  household  servants  at 
the  North  and  West,  pushing  our  foreign  white  population 
into  better  and  finer  spheres  of  labor,  and  two  generations 
would  see  this  dreadful  incubus  safely  lifted  from  the  land, 
without  one  break  in  the  constitution  or  one  flaw  in  the 
Union. 

The  general  tenor  and  object  of  these  reflections  must  have 
made  themselves  very  apparent.  Against  certain  nascent  ten- 
dencies and  vague  yet  powerful  dispositions  of  the  public 
mind  to  fall  back  in  our  national  difficulties  upon  first  princi- 
ples and  ideal  or  abstract  aspirations,  which  clothed,  now  in 
the  garb  of  religion  and  now  of  pliilanthrophy,  are  never- 


23 


theless  really  revolutionary  and  anarchical,  however  single- 
hearted  and  spiritually  attractive,  we  urge,  from  deep  moral 
convictions,  fortified  by  the  lessons  of  history  and  the  warn- 
ings of  common  sense,  the  strict  adherence  of  the  nation  to  its 
nationality  ; of  the  people  to  the  constitution  ; of  the  States  to 
the  Union  ; of  all  to  the  laws. 

We  are  Americans — United  States  men ! Our  country  has 
had  a history.  Its  peculiar  life  was  hid  in  the  special  circum- 
stances that  gave  it  being.  It  came  into  the  world  with  pangs 
and  groans,  bearing  in  its  body  the  elements  of  joy  and  sor- 
row, of  trial  and  success.  It  became  itself,  and  not  another 
nation,  because  of  peculiarities  in  the  circumstances  that 
shaped  it.  Its  misfortunes,  its  weaknesses,  its  difficulties,  were 
from  the  first,  as  much  a part  of  its  individuality  as  its  advan- 
tages and  facilities.  It  has  owed  its  drawbacks  to  causes 
which  in  other  respects  have  been  its  chariot  wheels.  Like 
the  original  curse  of  the  ground,  which  has  been,  if  the  sorrow, 
also  the  making  of  the  world ; so  the  trials  and  agitations 
which  the  providential  elements  of  discord  and  mortification 
in  our  national  life  and  constitution  have  been  to  this  country, 
have  proved  also  its  grand  sources  of  political  discipline  and 
national  education.  The  characteristic  features,  the  provi- 
dential individuality  of  our  country  are  due  to  those  circum- 
stances, whether  of  advantage  or  disadvantage,  which  make  it 
just  what  it  is.  This  nationality,  cost  us  what  sorrow  or  even 
mortification  it  may  in  some  aspects,  is  still  ours.  Our  con- 
stitutional birth-marks  are  upon  us,  and  though  spots  in  them- 
selves, they  are  not  the  less  significant,  identifying,  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  precious  body  in  which  they  inhere,  to  a cer- 
tain degree  sacred.  Like  the  misshapen  foot  of  a child,  which 
makes  it  dearer  to  its  mother  than  its  well-favored  brothers, 
we  accept  the  original,  in-born  defects  of  the  constitution  with 
filial  tenderness,  hoping  the  nation  will  outgrow  them,  but 
with  no  willingness  to  cut  them  out  at  the  risk  of  its  life.  Our 
failings,  our  weaknesses  are  our  own  ; they  are  to  be  struggled 
with,  overcome,  converted  into  graces,  but  they  are  not  to  be 
self-righteously  disowned,  nor  thrown  in  a heap  upon  a section 
of  the  land,  to  rid  the  residue  of  their  curse. 

What  trials  and  defects,  what  hereditary  weakness  and  sin 


24 


God  has  permitted  to  inhere  in  our  national  constitution,  let 
us  accept  with  humble  submission  to  his  will,  and  seek  by 
fidelity  to  our  fathers,  gratitude  for  their  work  and  devotion 
to  their  plan,  to  convert  into  ultimate  sources  of  glory  to  the 
nation. 

No  meanness  can  be  greater  than  that  of  refusing  to  bear 
each  man  his  own  part  in  the  painful  responsibilities  of  the 
national  constitutional  misfortunes,  after  enjoying  in  so  large  a 
degree  its  blessings.  Like  Pilate,  we  may  wash  our  hands 
and  be  no  cleaner  of  crime.  No ! America,  our  own  imper- 
fect, faulty,  sin-stricken,  yet  also  strength-abounding,  happy 
and  privileged  country,  is  our  own  in  every  part.  With  all  her 
sins  and  her  graces,  her  curses  and  her  blessings,  she  is  our 
own  dear  land ! Her  history— alike  in  its  shadows  and  its 
lights — in  its  ill  report  and  its  good-report — is  more  precious 
to  us  than  any  history  in  the  world  ; and  with  all  its  defects, 
nobler  and  better  than  any  other  ! We  must  therefore  rever- 
ence our  boundaries  and  maintain  them  ; our  constitution  and 
uphold  it;  our  union  and  preserve  it!  Nay,  we  must  work 
out  our  salvation,  with  fear  and  trembling,  from  the  very  cir- 
cumstances and  in  the  very  lot  in  which  it  is  appointed  us  to 
be  a nation.  It  is  this  special  nation,  and  not  some  other, 
that  we  are  to  perpetuate.  It  is  this  very  country,  and  not 
some  other,  that  we  are  to  save.  It  is  this  sacred  constitution 
of  our  fathers  that  we  propose  to  vindicate  against  the  sneers, 
the  doubts,  and  the  fears  of  the  world.  And  we  shall  do  it ! 
We  are  doing  it.  We  are  resolved  to  quell  this  rebellion  in 
the  strength  of  the  law,  and  by  the  hand  of  the  government. 
We  will  take  no  radically  unconstitutional  steps,  nor  allow 
the  taunts  of  irresponsible  foreigners,  nor  the  incitements  of 
idealists  and  cosmopolites  to  drive  us  into  an  impatient,  unhis- 
toric  and  unprovidential  way  of  dealing  with  the  original  dif- 
ficulties in  our  national  life.  They  are  great — but  so  great 
that  God’s  providence  can  alone  deliver  us  from  them.  We 
will  labor,  suffer,  pray,  that  they  may  be  wholly  eradicated, 
but  we  will  not  be  so  audacious  as  to  deny  our  nationality, 
abandon  our  history,  give  up  our  fathers’  and  our  own  ante- 
cedents, and  seek  to  become  another  people  and  anew  nation  ! 
No ! this  very  day  we  are  an  undivided  nation,  despite  the 


armies  that  confront  each  other  on  the  Potomac  and  the  Mis- 
souri! The  love  and  brotherhood  ot  these  States  will  survive 
this  quarrel.  The  war  was  the  crisis  of  a domestic  disease 
that  could  only  thus  manifest  its  virulence  and  purge  away  its 
poison.  We  must  fight  it  out;  unflinchingly,  energetically, 
passionately,  unsparingly.  We  must  utterly  crush  this  rebel- 
lion ; but  let  us  spare  the  constitution!  We  must  resist  the 
encroachments  of  slavery  and  keep  it  in  its  own  place  and 
sphere  ; nay,  destroy  it,  if  it  threatens  to  destroy  us.  But  let 
us  hope  and  pray  that,  the  country  may  deal  with  it  as  a family 
weakness  and  sin,  an  historic  and  providential  inheritance, 
with  gentleness  towards  its  victims,  with  consideration  for  the 
slave,  and  with  a full  consciousness  of  our  partnership  in  all 
the  wrongs  and  weaknesses,  as  in  all  the  hopes  and  blessings 
of  the  nation. 


Date  Due 


- 

Form  335— 40M— 6-39—  S 

0 


